Chordify Automatically Extracts Chords from Your Favorite Songs…

Have you heard of Chordify? Amazingly, I hadn’t heard of it until today.

The service takes music from YouTube, SoundCloud, Deezer, or a track you’ve uploaded and extracts the chords from it.

Chordify’s Deezer integration just went live, with that they’ve also launched an app in Deezer’s App Studio.

The service shows you the chords as the track is playing, letting you play along. If you want to know the technicals behind the automated service, Chordify has a detailed explanation.

I tested Chordify with a couple different songs and it was fairly accurate. I was impressed, considering it is a free and automated service. There are also premium features you can pay for, such as transposition and tempo change.

Like me, you may be wondering if this is copyright infringement. After all, lyrics sites have to work out licensing deals with labels. This is what Chordify has to say:

“Unlike lyrics or melody, chord progressions are not innovative and sufficiently unique to be copyrighted on their own. In fact, some chord progressions are particularly popular, and are used in exactly the same shape by hundreds of popular songs!”

However, they will remove individual songs if the copyright owner requests they do so.

An AWFUL idea! You can NOT learn to play if you don’t train the ear to understand what’s being played. No computer will ever EVER train you in the skills you must have to master the instrument. I spent many years ripping songs off records decades ago — the result is that I can master the progression in most songs I hear within a few minutes of hearing them. And how that training helps playing — immeasurably! STAY AWAY from this hogwash. Do it the hard way — the right way — and you WILL benefit more than you can ever know.

It’s not an awful idea! Having new tools in front of you to learn is very important. You don’t have to have a good ear to learn a song! In the old days we had song books to learn, but if you or I had this technology in the old days when we couldn’t find a song in a songbook, we would have used it, and it would have saved us countless hours. And NOT every song is in a songbook. If you can see the chords in front of you and you can learn to play them NOW, you’ll be successful. Some people are visual and it helps to see the chords and that progression. If you’re learning by ear, and you don’t know theory, you’re screwed. Can you imagine how good you’d be if you could hear & SEE what you were playing when you were learning? Don’t be so closed minded to new ideas. Nothing takes the place of hands on learning and practice, but new tools are always helpful to get the job done! Now, maybe this technology/software does suck, but it’s NOT a bad idea, it just needs to be refined.

Been playing for over 30 years but sometimes I just want a quick way to grab the chords of a great song I just found. Sorry if that doesn’t mean I have suffered enough for you to justify it but I want to play, not research for hours.

That is the beauty of the tech right now. You get a head start on the chords but still have to tweak it. Like writing code for websites. No one still uses notepad exclusively. Clean it up afterwards. Great way to accelerate the process and still develop the ear.

Why not BOTH? Yeah, when I was learning bass when I was 15, yeah, I learned chords by playing along with my favorite songs. And then I checked it all with a books I could find, an instructor, etc. Maybe I got the tabs sheet, and played along.

I agree with Rivers. Playing music isn’t supposed to be enjoyable. If it doesn’t bum you out a little you’re not doing it right. This product should be banned and people should require a license to play guitar.

It is a common misconception that chord progressions are not subject to copyright. It is true that in modern commercial pop and rock genres, the chord progressions are usually so simple that it would be difficult to prove that any similarity is due to copying. But where chord progressions are more complex and original – as they often were in the 60s and 70s – a complaint of copyright infringement would have a better chance of success. E.g. anyone who tried copying a chord progression as distinct as that of Strawberry Fields would be running a risk.

I think it’s more about the “sound” — which is a production choice and what instruments are used, with what timbe — rather than the chords. Not to mention the tempo.

One could play the chords behind Strawberry fields at a fast tempo on Irish whistle and kazoo, in a march rhythm, and I doubt if anyone is going to think that’s infringement.

One enjoyable exercise I occasionally like to do is grab a karaoke backing track from a song I have never heard of, and sing a new melody and lyric over it, just for fun. Then I go look up the original song and listen to what is was. I defy people to tell me what the underlying original song was, particularly when I add other instruments on top of it.

I don’t know of any actual court case that has decided the issue one way or the other. It probably wouldn’t be worth even trying to sue unless the similarity was very blatant and the ‘copier’ was making a lot of money from the song. I just think it is a bit of an urban myth among musicians that chord progressions can be copied with impunity. I don’t know of anything in either statute or case law to say that – but I’m not a lawyer , and if anyone can give me a definite precedent I will happily give way!

This article by a lawyer seems pretty firm that a chord progression could in principle be protected by copyright:http://legalit.com.au/legaliblog/?p=28 But it is an Australian site and the law may be different in the US. I just can’t find any reliable source for the opposite view. Likewise, there is a common assumption that a rhythm cannot be copyright, but I don’t know of any source for that either.

This is an interesting debate…On one hand, I believe there is less people playing guitar. The “popular” music of today is so electronic and beat based ( other than Country…the “New Rock”) there’s hardly any chords to extract. So that leaves the classics, which have been tabbed 10 different ways already, so it’s true, most musicians can learn a song “by ear” in a short time, why do we need this app? Matter of fact, this technology/ mentality has been around for decades…ever see a Player Piano!

I’m having a good time with it. I have only been playing the bass for about a month, I learned all the notes on the fret board within a week, and can actually play many songs, I just add what ever notes sound good between the chords on the bass.

I’m just amazed how snobbish you musicians are. This is great fun for crap guitarists like me who are never going to be any good but just love messing about . If you are that good ..what are you even doing looking at this site. Be joyous but remember Grace Slick sang on Manhole….” You know it’s only music…don’t hang on too tight ..don’t try to read too much into it.. ” now where’s my out of tune old guitar..just got to try Boz Scaggs Corrina Corrina…

All of you have valid arguments, but it is quite ridiculous to try to sue over chord progressions anyway. Think of how many songs use the Wild Thing 1-4-5. Also if that were the case, there would only be one blues song because 99% of them are 1-4-5. Then you have the Sweet Home Alabama 1-7-4. Progressions are just road maps. The same progression can be used 10 times and between extensions, arpeggios, mutes, different instruments, tempo changes and transpositions, one would have 10 different songs, Chordify is a good idea and will get you relatively close, but as one of you stated, it is no substitute for hard work, practice, and study. I have studied theory for years and do ear training, so it is up to you how good you want to be. This approach allows me to recognize suspended chords, sevenths, & etc. I tell people think of it as arming yourself to add different tools to your toolbox. Some have the basic screwdriver, hammer, and saw. Others have a basement full of tools such as crescent wrenches, vice grips, allen wrenches, well you get the picture. Have fun